Palm Springs, CA
It is a real joy to write a very good review. Conversely, there is no joy for me in writing a mixed one. Prism Entertainment danced onto the Palm Springs theater scene this past spring with the fun and fresh Camp Morning Wood, then continued its camp-forward momentum with the crowd-pleasing The Book of Merman. With Making Porn by Ronnie Larsen, Prism again offers its audience something bold, adult, unapologetically queer, and certainly not shy.
A word of warning: this review contains some spoilers. You have been warned.
Making Porn begins with real promise. Act I plays almost like the pilot episode of a successful sitcom. The setup is sharp, the pace is brisk, and the world of the play gives the cast plenty of room to lean into broad comedy, awkward encounters, and the backstage absurdity of an adult film set. At its best, the first act feels like a guilty-pleasure comedy — lowbrow, intentionally silly, and funny in the way certain sitcoms are funny before we have time to ask whether we should be laughing.
The problem is not really the direction by Lance Phillips, Prism’s Artistic Director. The deeper issue is the structure of the play itself. Making Porn wants to be two different shows, and the turn from Act I into Act II is where the evening begins to wobble.
Act I centers on a group of men trying to find their way into the porn business. Ricky, a law student who becomes involved with porn star Roy, is played with charm and surprising emotional ease by Ryan Avoux, whom Prism audiences may also know from The Book of Merman. Avoux is the actor who most successfully makes the difficult turn from the lighter comedy of the first act into the more serious material that follows.
Drew Sebastian plays Roy, the established porn star at the center of Ricky’s fascination. Sebastian brings the necessary confidence and physical presence to the role, helping define the fantasy world the play is building in its first half.
The more interesting subplot belongs to Jack, played by Sean Timothy Brown. Jack is trying to become a serious actor and looks to porn as a way to pay the bills. The complication, of course, is that Jack is straight and married. That marriage brings Mallory Kerwin into the story, and she is one of the evening’s comic gifts. Kerwin, also familiar to Prism audiences from The Book of Merman, brings her masterful comic timing to the production and knows exactly how to land a moment without pushing it too far.
Peter Kalisch as Jamie and Maurizio Bandi as Arthur round out the company as the stage manager and producer/director trying to keep the chaotic machine of the film shoot moving. Bandi, in particular, has some very funny moments, especially when paired with Kerwin. Their scenes together help give Act II much-needed energy.
The difficulty arrives when the play shifts from campy adult-industry farce into the AIDS crisis. Because the story is set in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the play almost has to acknowledge that reality. For many of us who lived through that period, life really could feel like that — laughter, sex, denial, fear, and grief all existing in the same room. The challenge is that Making Porn has not fully prepared us for that turn.
There are works that manage this kind of tonal shift beautifully. Boogie Nights, for example, begins in one kind of world and gradually reveals the darker machinery underneath it. But Making Porn is not Boogie Nights. The transition here feels abrupt, as if one play ended at intermission and another one began after it.
That is not to say sitcoms cannot handle serious subjects. Designing Women, Murphy Brown, and The Golden Girls all proved that comedy can make room for weight, conscience, and consequence. But those shows were built with that kind of emotional range in their bones. Making Porn, at least in its first act, feels closer to a campy guilty pleasure — broad, brash, and gleefully unserious. When Act II takes on AIDS, the shift does not feel fully earned. At times, it feels disingenuous, not because the subject is unworthy, but because the play has not laid the groundwork to carry it.
I pay close attention to audiences when I see a show, partly to test whether I am out of sync with the room. At intermission, the crowd seemed happy. People were smiling, laughing, and enjoying the ride. By the end of Act II, the energy had changed. The audience did not seem angry or disengaged, but there was a noticeable sense of people trying to reconcile the two very different shows they had just watched.
Still, the production is not without charm. Kerwin and Bandi keep the second act alive whenever they are together, and Avoux brings genuine empathy to his later scenes. He clearly has deeper acting skills than the first act initially asks of him, and he gives the evening some of its most human moments.
In the end, Making Porn is a mixed experience: funny, messy, uneven, occasionally heartfelt, and structurally frustrating. It offers a strong cast working hard inside a play that does not always help them. I continue to look forward to Prism’s next offering, and I hope audiences will see Making Porn and decide for themselves. I have only one opinion, and theater is always better when the conversation continues after the curtain comes down.
Making Porn runs through August 2 at Prism Theatre in Palm Springs.
About the Author
D. Wesley Spencer, Ph.D , is a writer, actor, director, arts educator, and He is the co-author of Universal Creative Intelligence: How the Arts and Sciences Propel Human Advancement, a book exploring how creative thinking shapes learning, leadership, and human progress.
He teaches communication at College of the Desert. Wesley brings a lifelong passion for theater and storytelling to every review he writes. As a columnist for The Palm Springs Tribune, Wesley covers theater, concerts, film, dining, local talent, and cultural events throughout the Coachella Valley. His reviews are known for their warmth, clarity, and deep respect for the power of the arts and the artists and communities they serve. Wesley Spencer © All rights Reserved
service.to.others.cci@gmail.com
____________________________________________________________________